By Joe Pinkstone For Mailonline
Published: 12:19 GMT, 22 February 2019 | Updated: 04:32 GMT, 23 February 2019
36 shares
69
View
comments
The most distant object in the solar system has been spotted by scientists in the depths of space - far beyond Pluto.
The faint object is located approximately 140 times further away from the sun than the distance between our star and Earth - known as an astronomical unit (AU).
It has been dubbed 'FarFarOut' by its discoverers who admit to knowing very little about the object they accidentally discovered while searching for Planet X.
Scroll down for video
It has been dubbed 'FarFarOut' by its discoverers who admit to knowing very little about the object. The discovery breaks the record for the most distant object in the solar system of 120 AU (11 billion miles) - which was named Farout (artist's impression pictured)
Dr Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC, found the object when analysing some data when a talk he was scheduled to give was postponed by 24 hours.
It breaks the record for the most distant object in the solar system of 120 AU (11 billion miles) - which was named Farout and also discovered by Dr Sheppard back in December.
The record-holder before this was the dwarf planet Eris at 96 astronomical units. Pluto, by comparison, is 34 astronomical units away.
The find was first reported at a postponed talk on the ongoing search for Planet X - a giant ninth planet theorised to exist beyond Pluto - at the Carnegie centre after being delayed 24 hours due to snowfall.
It was in this
